The course material evolved from over fifteen years of teaching courses on finite elements at the introductory graduate level. The period also involved close interaction with industry through consulting and developmental projects. The approach has been appreciated by the students and praticing engineers who have taken this course.

The course named as “Finite element method” is intended as a learning sourse for first year graduate students. It has been strived to integrate finite element theory, problem formulation, and computer analysis. The isoparametric concept is introduced at the beginning while considering one-dimensional problems and is subsequently used in a consistent and unified manner for two- and three-dimensional problems. Both the energy and the Galerkin approaches are used in the development of stiffness and load matrices and governing equations. Attention is given throughout to the modeling of engineering problems, specification of boundary conditions, and handling of temperature effects. Pre- and postprocessing concepts are discussed. Deformation and stress analyses are introduced first to solidify the concepts and then detailed formulation of heat, fluid flow, and electric and magnetic fields is presented.

Complete computer programs, which implement and parallel the theory, are included at the end of each chapter starting with Chapter 2. Listings of MATLAB programs are given in the main text. MATLAB is available on most universities in China as a free software resourse. Data preparation for computer programs is presented through examples at the end of each chapter.

In the preparation of the first edition of this online course, the senior authors’ book “Introduction to the Finite Element Method—Theory, Programming, and Application” (Erik G. Thompson 2002) was extensively used. Acknowledgment is also due to Reddy’s “Introduction to the Finite Element Method” and to Chandrupatla and Belegundu’s “Introduction to Finite Elements in Engineering”. The author also wish to give special thanks to my wife, Xinying Jiang, my son, Yinuo Wu, and my mom, Jialing Lv, for their complete support and decent love.  

1) Erik G. Thompson “Introduction to the Finite Element Method—Theory, Programming, and Application” John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://www.engr.colostate.edu/~thompson/hPage

2) J. N. Reddy “Introduction to the Finite Element Method” Mac Graw Hill, Inc.

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